Final Fantasy IX The Story
by Afeni
Summary: What happened the game named Final Fantasy IX? Read this and you'll know. I wrote this story first in Finnish and now I'm translating it in English.
1. Prology

**PROLOGY**

It was a beautiful and sunny day. 6-year-old little girl was playing on the beach and was making cakes out of wet sand. She was eager and dabbed flat her cakes with her small hands. The sun was shining from her brown eyes and light wind was swaying her dark hair. 

A young woman arrived to the beach carrying two robes. She smiled sweetly to the girl and drew her on her lap. Faces of the woman and girl were similar. Same nose, same lips and the same brown eyes stared each other. Woman had also same dark hair as the girl had.

The woman carried the girl to the cave, where you could go to the sea. There were few boats in the cave. The woman dressed the brown robe on the girl and got dressed herself too. Then she set her child in one boat. She released the boat from pier and pushed it away from shore with an oar.

When they were further from the shore the woman lifted up the sail of the small boat. The sail was filled with fresh ocean wind and the wind carried the boat further on the sea. The mother grabbed her arms around her daughter smiling happily. They used to go sailing every day if weather was good enough. That was their moment of the day. If you asked the girl that was her favourite moment of the day. She loved sailing with her mother on the huge ocean.

Suddenly the wind changed harder and waves turned higher. The sky became dark in a second. The mother started to turn the sail so that she could took the boat to the shore before the storm would rise. But she stopped her movement when she saw the sky.

Above their home village had appeared a huge airship, which bottom appeared enormous red eye. There came a bright beam from the eye and the beam hit the village.

There was an enormous blast in the village. People in the boat heard humans screaming and crying and suddenly everything was nothing but ruins. The mother pressed her daughter against her chest, when the boat drifted even further on the sea because of the pressure wave of the blast.

There was no hint of beautiful weather anymore. It looked like the airship was causing a hurricane. Wind was howling and it made waves rose almost two meters high. The little boat tossed around recklessly. Dreaded mother held on the mast with her other hand while squeezing her daughter against her chest so that neither of them would flush into the sea…


	2. Chapter one: The meeting

CHAPTER ONE**  
**THE MEETING

The afternoon was bright and beautiful. The sky was clear and just few clouds were drifting here and there. Theatre airship, Prima Vista, was flying from Lindblum to Alexandria, because theatre group Tantalus was going to play there Lord Avon's famous drama 'I want to be your canary'.

The sides of the ship were coloured with orange and light red by the sun of the afternoon. At the bow of the ship was a beautiful wooden mermaid with her green tail… to bring luck.

On the deck of the airship was standing a young man, who had light barley coloured hair. His clothing was a quite special: turquoise blue trousers, which hem got thinner downwards. He also had loose sleeves and a waistcoat, which were same colour as trousers. Underneath the waistcoat was a sleeveless white shirt, which ruffle collar was resting on top of waistcoat. On his waist he had entwined yellow, perhaps too long, belt and on his feet he had grey leather boots and in his hands same coloured gloves.

However the strangest thing about the boy was that he had a tail. He hadn't ever seen anyone else, who had a tail. And he didn't know why he had it. He had never known his parents. As far as he remembered, he had grown up with Tantalus guys.

Young man's eyes were glimmering with joy of life, and he was smiling eagerly. This night wouldn't be as similar as normally. This time Tantalus group wasn't going to just play the drama but they had another goal too.

The group had gotten an order to kidnap the princess of Alexandria and take her to Lindblum. The young man waited exited coming evening. He had been along with all kinds of intrigues, but he hadn't kidnapped anyone before. And this wasn't just any kidnap. Even he knew that in question was a political plotting even though no one had told that to him. Even dummier person would have understood that no one was kidnapping a princess without a good reason. On the other hand no one had told to the young why they were going to abduct the princess and he thought that they didn't know the reason either.

The boy let wind fondle his hair and face just a bit longer but then he turned around and walked to the mast of the theatre ship. He used the mast as the fireman uses his bar and slid then below the deck.

He walked down the corridor until he arrived to a room.  
"Sure is dark…" the boy muttered himself and lighted the candle, which was on the small table. "I guess nobody's here yet…"

At the same moment the young man heard voice behind the door, which led to the next room.  
"Who's there?" the voice asked.  
"It's me, Zidane," the boy answered.

The door opened and three of Tantalus members came in. Blank, Cinna and Marcus were all Zidane's mates and brothers.  
"Hey, Zidane! You sure are late!" Blank, the guy with a red spiky hair and a belt in front of his eyes, said.   
"Sorry," Zidane said. "So, where's the boss?" he asked then.  
"Ain't here yet", Cinna, the man with a cook's hat, told him.

Suddenly the other door of the room swung open and a two-headed monster run in. Everyone stared the monster but when it took out its sword they got ready to fight. Zidane drew his knife to defend himself.

The fight was over very soon. Zidane split the heads of the monster and it screamed. Heads dropped to the floor and the boss of the Tantalus was standing in front of everyone. He had just tested a new costume.  
"Hey fools!" man named Baku greeted his crew. "You're lookin' a lot better." He laughed cordially and pointed out to everyone to follow him to the next room. "Alright! Let's start this meeting already!"

In the next room was a round table and on the table was the scale model of the Alexandria castle. Everybody sat down around the table while Baku started to explain their plan once more.  
"Here's the plan! Tantalus, the infamous band of daring thieves (that's us), is headin' to the Kingdom of Alexandria... Our mission: to kidnap the heir to the throne, Princess Garnet!" he told.  
"I'll take it from here, so listen up!" Cinna said and stood up. "Our ship's about to dock at Alexandria... And when it does, we're gonna put on our costumes... and perform 'I Want to Be Your Canary,' the most popular play in Alexandria! Break a leg, Marcus! 'Cause you're playin' the lead!"  
"Leave the actin' to me! Of course, the real kidnappers'll be Blank and Zidane," Marcus laughed.  
"I'll distract the audience from backstage with these little buggers," Blank said. "I can't stand oglops... But I'll manage, so don't worry about me. And that'll be your cue, Zidane!"  
"Okay", Zidane answered. "That's when I kidnap Princess Garnet, right?"   
"You bet! You're gonna kidnap the most babe-ilicious beauty in all of Alexandria, Princess Garnet!" Baku blurted.

A little black mage raised his face to the sky, when large shadow covered the light of the evening sun. He stared with big eyes the theatre ship, which flew on the sky of the Alexandria. He had on his head quite a big light brown pointy hat. He was clothed with blue jacket, white-green striped bagged trousers and ginger shoes. You couldn't see anything on his face but bright yellow eyes, everything else was covered with black. He was just 9-year-old, but he was alone in the town.

When the airship was passing the town centre the black mage directed his footsteps to the river, which departed the castle from the town. He got a ticket to Lord Avon's drama and that's why he had arrived to Alexandria.

Suddenly he stumbled with his feet and fell down. He dropped his ticket, but little pink-dressed girl took it and handed it over to him.  
"You awright?" the girl asked and the mage nodded. "Here! You dropped your ticket. Bye-bye!" And the girl was gone.

The mage stared little girl until she went around the corner. At the same moment when he was about to continue his way to the river someone pushed him and he fell down once more.  
"Oww! Why you--get outta my way!!!" a rat-faced kid yelled to him.

The mage didn't have time even to apologize to him, because he run away immediately. Surprised mage rose up and headed to the ticket master, who was collecting the theatre tickets.  
"Can I help you, son?" the man asked.

The mage showed his ticket to the man, who watched it closely and then shook his head.  
"What's this? There's something odd about this ticket..." he muttered. "Why, it's another fake! I've seen so many today."   
"Nooooo!" the pointy-hat boy cried.  
"Now, now. Don't cry. I know how you must feel," the ticket master consoled him. "Here, I'll give you these. Do try to cheer up now, hmm? Talk to Alleyway Jack to learn most about cards. Good luck, lad!" The man gave some playing cards to the mage hoping that they would cheer up the little one.

The little boy was very upset but he took the cards. Then he wandered to the dark streets wondering what he would do now. He stopped to look at a man, who was nailing a new sign above a little theatre. The man missed his hit and the sign almost dropped.  
"Blast it!" he cursed and looked the mage madly. "Hey! You made me miss, you little klutz!" Then he just kept working and a moment later the sign were just where it should be. "Whew. That should do it. Well, it's been a long day," he said and left. He left wooden ladder and the mage behind him.

At the same moment the rat-faced kid knocked the mage on the back. The mage turned around and watched the other kid cautiously.  
"Hey, you! Shrimp! You're the one with the phony ticket, ain'tcha? I saw the guy tell you it was fake!" the rat-kid said to the mage.  
"Y-Yeah, it's fake," the mage stuttered.   
"I'll let you see the show if you become my slave! Well, whaddya say?" the rat-kid proposed.

The mage hesitated for a moment, but then he answered: "Alright."  
"Awesome! Now for your first assignment!" the rat-kid told to him. "You go stand over there and see if anyone's comin'!"

The pointy-hat boy nodded and walked to the corner of the street. No one was coming so he told that to the rat-boy.  
"Awesome! Engage according to mission parameters!" rat-kid laughed.

The rat-kid snatched the ladder and then told the pointy-hat mage to follow him. He run to the other street and straight to the temple of some kind. In the temple was a high belfry and the rat-kid was going to climb there.

But when he grabbed the ladder, which led upwards, something fell down. It was a small fairy-like animal with white fur and a feeler with a red ball. Nervy rat-kid cursed.  
"Sorry 'bout that, Kupo!" the animal said.  
"That's Kupo. He's a moogle," the rat-kid introduced animal to the mage.  
"Kupo!" moogle answered and smiled to the mage-kid.  
"And this is slave number one!" rat-kid told. "Try to get along, okay?" 

"Kupo! Pleased to meet you!" moogle said to the mage ignoring the rat-kid.

The rat-kid also ignored the moogle and said to the mage: "Alright, time for some upward mobility!" He started to climb up to the tower dragging the wooden ladder with him. The mage was going to follow him, but at the same time another moogle arrived in the temple.  
"Kupo! You here?" the another moogle greeted.  
"Kupo! Stiltzkin! Why that getup?" Kupo asked the other moogle. "You leaving, Kupo?"  
"Yeah, and this time I might be away for a long time," Stilzkin answered and smiled mysteriously.  
"I'll miss you, Kupo," Kupo said sadly.  
"Now, don't you worry. I'll write," Stilzkin consoled him.  
"Okay, Kupo!"   
"Well, I'm off. Take care!" Stilzkin said. "Oh, and say hi to Mosh in the castle for me." Then he left the temple behind.

"Was that a friend of yours?" the pointy-hat boy asked. He thought that those moogles were very nice animals.  
"Yes, Kupo. A very special one, Kupo!!!" Kupo told and smiled. He looked like he would have liked to tell more, but the rat-kid yelled down from the tower:  
"Hey, slave! I thought I ordered you up here!!!"

The mage apologized to the moogle and climbed up to the belfry.  
"Alright, the play's gonna start if we don't hurry!" the rat-kid said. He led the way along the roof tops dragging that ladder with him. The mage didn't understand, why it was needed, but he found out soon enough. 

The rat-kid set the ladder between the last roof top and the wall of the castle so that they could climb along it to the castle and go to watch the show.  
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" the rat-kid said suddenly. "I don't even know your name!"   
"Vivi", the mage muttered.  
"Kinda funny name..." the rat-kid mentioned. "My name's Puck! Pleased to meetcha!" 

Vivi nodded to the other boy and then they climbed to the castle. They sneaked to the audience just in time. The show was about to begin.

The sun had just set, when the theatre ship landed on the yard of the Alexandria castle. The audience was clapping their hands and the great queen Brahne was sitting in her box with her daughter princess Garnet Til Alexandros 17th, her fearless captain of the knights of Pluto, Adelbert Steiner and the general of her army, Beatrix.

The general was known of her beauty, but also of her fencing skills. Her light brown hair, which curled to her shoulders, made a false impression of softness. She was everything but soft. She was the best fighter of the land, they even told rumours that she had never lost a single fight. Her sword was cruel and merciless and it didn't save any of her enemies' life, but it was always ready to protect her love ones… and of course her queen.

Captain Adelbert Steiner was opposite of the general in all possible ways. He wore an old, rusty armour, which clattered and rattled whenever he moved. He also used a sword for fighting, but he wasn't even close as good as general Beatrix.

The captain had dedicated his life to protect and serve the royal family of the Alexandria and he took his job very seriously. At the moment his most important duty was to watch over the princess Garnet, young naive lassie.

Queen Brahne, captain Steiner and general Beatrix enjoyed the drama very much, but princess Garnet looked depressed. She really loved Lord Avon's dramas, but tonight she couldn't concentrate at all. She was worried about her mother, who had been a good queen until Garnet's father had died a year ago. It looked like as the queen didn't care about anyone, not even her own daughter.

Princess Garnet didn't feel at home in the big castle anymore. She had seen a strange, silver haired man lurking around the castle and talking with her mother. The man had appeared just a week later of the death of Garnet's father.

The girl was sure that her mother and the man were plotting something terrible and she wanted to prevent her mother not to do anything stupid… but she also knew that she couldn't do that alone. That's why she had come up with a plan. On the half time she would sneak to the Prima Vista and travel as a stowaway in it to Lindblum. There lived her uncle Cid, who was the regent of Lindblum and her father's brother.

The play went as it always used to. Audience was in the bliss, but princess Garnet left her seat just before the half time, when Zidane and Blank presented their fighting scene.

"Out of my way, Blank!" Zidane yelled.

"Consider this, Zidane! If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms!" Blank answered and drew his sword.

"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!" Zidane said grabbing his own sword.

They played fencing scene as the audience encouraged them. Even queen Brahne stood up and started to incite those two friends.

After their scene Zidane and Blank sneaked to the castle. They had to knock out two knights of Pluto and steal their armours so that no one would pay attention to them.

"Finished changing, Zidane?" Blank asked when they were in a small storage room trying to make their new armours fit.

"Yeah, but this helmet... It kinda smells..." Zidane muttered.

"What are you talkin' about!? My helmet totally reeks!" Blank snapped. "My armor's way too big... And my back's real itchy... The boots are wet... My gloves are all slimy... There's cookie crumbs in my pocket..."

"Okay, I get the picture..." Zidane calmed. "You still have the package, right?"

"Don't worry! I won't screw up!" Blank said simply. Zidane nodded to him and said:

"Alright! First, I'll go pour some sleep potion into Princess Garnet's teacup!"

"And I've got a special something for the lovely queen!" Blank laughed.

Zidane and Blank left the room and two unconscious knights. They walked down the corridor, which led to the auditorium and to inner parts of the castle. There was also a staircase, which led to the upper levels of the castle.

"According to recon..." Blank muttered "...the royal seats should be right above these stairs!"

"Got it!" Zidane said and watched cautiously around. No one was near so the way was clear.

At the same moment they heard that audience sighed admiringly. "Uh-oh! The scene where Marcus sneaks into Cornelia's chamber is about to start!" Blank noticed. "Let's get this over with before the finale, okay?"

Zidane nodded to his friend and hastened up to stairs. He reached the upper level just in time when someone run towards him. It was a girl, who was wearing a white robe with red patterns. The girl was hiding her face with the hood of the robe.

"Umm... Would you please let me pass?" the girl asked.

"Let's see," Zidane said and went closer to her. He tried to examine the girl's face. She turned her head, but he noticed that the girl was very beautiful.

"Is there something on my face?" the girl asked almost angrily.

"Oh, no. You see..." Zidane answered and smiled. "I just thought maybe you were the one I'd been waiting for all this time." The young man couldn't resist flirting with cute girls whenever he had the chance.

"Excuse me? You were waiting for me?" the girl said and sounded a bit surprised.

"Yeah! I've dreamt of meeting you here ever since I was born!" Zidane laughed.

"Do you mock me?" the hooded girl asked and the anger shone from her voice again.

"No, of course not..." Zidane answered quickly.

"Then, I shall take my leave of you!" the girl said and tried pass Zidane, but the boy didn't let her.

"Just a sec! Haven't we met before?" the young man asked.

"No, I do not know you..." the girl said sounding frustrated.

"Hmm... Maybe you're right... I'd never let someone as pretty as you get away. Say, you wouldn't-" Zidane started, but at the same moment Blank run up the stairs.

"Hey, what's goin' on, Zidane?" he asked. He had waited downstairs Zidane to come back.

"I… I must go!" the hooden girl exclaimed and run pass Zidane and Blank to downstairs.

Blank looked after the girl amazed. "Who the heck was that!?" he asked and thought that Zidane shouldn't flirt all the time.

"It was princess Garnet", Zidane answered, because he has just realized, why the girl looked so familiar.

The young men looked at each other and then run downstairs starting look for the girl, who had just run away.

At the same time in other part of the castle two court fools were running to the royal box. They were identical twins, but you could tell who was who, because other was wearing red-white striped clothes and other blue-white striped clothes.

"We are in trouble!" Zorn, the blue-white court fool, cursed.

"Trouble are we in!" his brother Thorn answered.

"This is terrible!" Zorn said.

"Our heads, Queen Brahne will have!" Thorn assented.

"We must hurry!" Zorn thought.

They run through the corridors right to the royal box but there captain Steiner didn't let them to disturb the queen.

"See the queen, we must!" Thorn claimed.

"Her Majesty is busy! Come back later!" Steiner said and looked at those two loathing.

"Is it an emergency?" general Beatrix interrupted.

"An emergency, it is!" Thorn answered immediately.

"A veritable emergency of terrible urgency!" Zorn said too.

"Very well. I'll see what I can do," Beatrix said friendly. She left two court fools with captain Steiner and went to talk with the queen.

"Grrr! Curse that Beatrix! Always trying to one-up me!" Steiner muttered to himself.

General Beatrix came back and wanted to know, what the big problem was. The court fools told her that princess Garnet was disappeared.

Woman nodded and went back to queen Brahne. "Your Majesty, it seems that Princess Garnet has run off with the Royal Pendant."

"Well, of all the... What could she be thinking!?" the queen said angrily and then turned her face and watched the other woman closely. "General Beatrix!"

"Your Majesty!" Beatrix answered.

"And captain Steiner!"

Steiner left the court fools too and run to the queen. "Yes, your Majesty!" he said.

"Go find Garnet!" queen Brahne said to both of her soldiers.

"Yes, my queen," Steiner answered and run away.

"At once, Your Majesty!" Beatrix said too and followed him.

Captain Steiner called his knights, but he realized that two of them were missing. The group found them from a small storage room, but they couldn't tell who had attacked them.

Steiner told the men look for princess Garnet and started also looking for her. Soon he realized that the girl wasn't inside of the castle. He run to the yard trying to find her. Finally he climbed up to old tower to look for her. She wasn't there, but when he was looking around from the top of the tower he saw something: a hooded girl on the top of another tower running away from one of the Tantalus members!

The man watched as the girl climbed to the brink of the other tower and the Tantalus member stopped near to her. The girl started to fall and then she flew through the air. Steiner heart almost stopped beating before he realized that the girl was using one of the feasts strings (with which servants had decorated the whole castle) as a liana and flew toward theatre ship Prima Vista.

Steiner saw the Tantalus member did the same trick and flew also towards the ship. Just before the boy and the girl reached the ship Steiner grabbed to one of the strings and waved himself to air flight. Unfortunately he didn't fly to the ship, but he bumped to the wall of the castle.

Zidane landed safely to the lower deck of the theatre ship. There was Tantalus' band playing music from the play, but he didn't see princess Garnet anywhere.

"Huh? Where'd the princess go?" he wondered.

Suddenly princess Garnet run pass him and disappeared to the inside of the ship. Zidane followed her and saw that Garnet was talking with the only actress of Tantalus, Ruby.

"Whoa! Whut in tarnation!?" Ruby cried out to the princess. "Hold yer horses, there! Whut kinda cattle you chasin', darlin'? You should at least say yer sorry!"

"Please pardon me. I was in a hurry, you see..." Garnet explained.

"And here I am, fixin' to get ready fer my big entrance!" Ruby muttered and discovered that Zidane had also entered the room. "Hey, Zidane! Did you see the way she hit me!?"

"This cowgirl's wilder than a buckin' bronco!"

"Just let me talk to her, Ruby!" Zidane requested impatiently.

"Come again, pardner!?" Ruby said angrily. "Did you hear what I just said?"

The hooded girl took a glance of those two and then run to the other room. Zidane run after her and mentioned to Ruby: "Ruby! We'll talk later!"

Zidane followed the princess to the room, which was a dead end, because the other door of the room was locked. The girl couldn't run off anymore.

"Whew... Well, it looks like you've finally made up your mind," he said and smiled.

"Do you... do you work on this theater ship?" the princess asked. Zidane nodded cautiously. He really hoped that the girl had not figured out their plan. "As you have no doubt suspected... the truth is that... I am actually..." the girl removed her hood. "Princess Garnet Til Alexandros, heir to the throne of Alexandria." When Zidane didn't say anything, she continued speaking: "I have a favor I wish to ask of you... I wish to be kidnapped... right away."

"H-Huh!? I don't... I mean..." Zidane muttered surprised.

At the same moment someone started to beat the door. They heard Steiner yelling for princess.

"Please... They've come for me!" Garnet requested.

"Aha... So that's what's going on..." Zidane started to figure out the picture. "Alright! Leave them to me!"

"Thank you. You have my gratitude," Garnet said and put her hood back on.

"Alright then, Your Highness!" Zidane laughed. "I shall hereby do my best to kidnap you!"

Suddenly Cinna, one of the Zidane's friends, opened the other door and came inside.

"What're you two doin'? Come on, this way!" he said. He had heard the whole conversation through the door. He went back to the room, where he had came and Zidane and princess followed him.

"Hey, Cinna! This is a dead end!" Zidane remarked, when they arrived at the same room, where Baku had told the plan to them earlier.

Steiner's steps reached further and they could hear that someone was with him. But Cinna just laughed. He removed the round table away and revealed a secret passage to the engine room of the ship. All the three of them climbed down and then run forward through the engine room.

They left the engine room behind and arrived to another room, but there was a nasty surprise. In a way or another Steiner had found out his way to the lower level of the ship and was standing in that very room.

"Aha!" he yelled. "Princess! I, Steiner, have come to your rescue!"

And at the same moment one of the knights of Pluto blocked their way back to the engine room.

"You needn't worry, Your Highness!" the man said and made Zidane smirking.

"Good work! This will be remembered as the Pluto Knights' finest hour!" Steiner said satisfied to his knight. But for his surprise the knight laughed.

"Just relax, Princess. We'll get you outta here!" the knight said and took away his helmet. He was Blank.

"WHAT!!!?" Steiner yelled. "You're not one of my knights!"

Captain extracted his sword and told the princess to stay back. Zidane, Blank and Cinna grabbed their weapons also and surrounded the princess. Steiner attacked them, but he couldn't beat them all by himself.

Blank stepped forward and was going to attack Steiner, but the captain waved his sword and hit his chest. The old, rusty armour scattered and suddenly the room was full of oglops (nasty, little bugs), which were bouncing all around. Steiner tried to wave them away and other four took their chance and run away to the other room.

That room was underneath the stage of the ship and there were three lifts, which could take actors up to the stage. Cinna told Zidane that he should take number two with the princess and the young man followed the instructions.

The lift took Zidane and Garnet to the stage, where the drama was going on. Baku, in the role of King Leo, was speaking.

"Tonight, I shall finally see my daughter Cornelia betroth'd to Prince Schneider! And then Prince Schneider and his kingdom will be mine!"

Two other actors came from the backstage dragging Zidane's friend Marcus between them.

"Your Majesty!" said one of them.

"We have caught an intruder!" the other one told.

"Why, my poor Marcus!"

"Hark, lad. No matter how much thou dost treasure Cornelia... no matter how deeply she might believe she doth love thee..." Baku spoke. "...never shall I see her marry a peasant such as thee!"

A bell rang and Baku continued: "When the bell strikes three... Under the axe thou shall be!" The bell rang two times more and he said: "Furthermore!" He turned around and saw Zidane and Garnet. Zidane whispered to everyone just to improvise.

Marcus realized the situation and broke free from his guardians. He run to the Garnet and cried: "Cornelia!"

It was lucky that 'I want to be your canary' was the favourite play of the princess. She knew exactly what to do and say.

"Oh, Marcus! I missed you so!" She hugged the young man. "I wish never to leave thy side. Prithee, lead me from this place!"

"See, King Leo? Thou shouldst give them thy blessing!" Zidane told.

"Never!"

"Never leave his side, thou sayest? Foolish banter! I'll not allow it!" Baku raged, when captain Steiner arrived to the stage. For a while Baku was confused, but soon he continued: "Cornelia shall marry none other than this man - Prince Schneider!"

"Is that not so, Prince Schneider?"

Steiner looked at the man and then princess Garnet not understanding what was going on.

"M-Marry the princess? Me!?" he asked.

"Aye! And this traitorous crew, I will put to death!" Baku yelled.

The two men, who had brought Marcus to the stage, run away. Baku watched after them for a moment, but then he turned to the princess.

"Pray, sweet daughter, come home to the castle with me."

"Nay, Father! I shan't return!" Garnet answered.

"Cornelia... Trouble me no more," Baku said. "This wedding is for thine own welfare. Be mindful of that."

"Not if I can help it!!! Now is my moment of vengeance! For my parents, and for my love, Cornelia..." Marcus yelled and drew his wooden sword. "I shall cut thee down!"

Marcus stepped forward and tried to stab Baku, but Garnet stepped in front of him and took the attack. The wooden sword slid to her underarm and she fell down as she was dead.

Just a moment later there was screaming in the audience. Two kids, one rat and one black mage, run to the stage and were followed by two knights of Pluto. The knights had found out that they had sneaked to the audience without tickets and now they were trying to capture them for their crime.

Puck got away, but the knights succeeded to pursue Vivi to a corner. Vivi raise his hands and muttered something. Suddenly a fireball almost hit the knights, but they were able to avoid it. The fireball hit on the princess Garnet's hood and set it on fire.

Princess Garnet completely jumped up and threw her robe away. The audience soughed as they recognized their princess.

"Zidane! It's time!" Baku yelled so that everyone could hear him. Someone started the engine of the ship and it started to go up.

The ship inclined and the two knights of Pluto fell down to audience. Everyone else on the deck just went down when the ship was rising up. Queen Brahne reacted immediately and yelled to her soldiers to launch the defence system of the castle. The soldiers, who had been in guard started to shoot the ship, which was flying away from Alexandria. They hit the engine room and the ship started to fall. It fell straight to the forest, which was underneath the town.


End file.
